Grow marketable crops – Museveni

Mityana- President Museveni has advised farmers to grow high value crops that are marketable locally and can penetrate international markets.

He was speaking at a thanksgiving and launch of a Sacco, Kisoboka Foundation, aimed at empowering the people of Mityana North to improve livelihoods.

The President, who was named patron of the group, observed that farmers in Mityana went against his advice of planting profitable and marketable crops when they planted food crops such as maize that can only bring in high returns if grown on big chunks of land.

“I have never told you to plant maize, cotton, tobacco and to rear local breeds. I advised you to plant crops which are marketable like coffee and fruits which are on high demand world-wide,” Mr Museveni said.

He added that other countries stopped importing Ugandan maize because of its poor quality.

Volatile marketThe maize market has been volatile with a kilogramme costing as low as Shs300 in some parts of the country compared to last year’s Shs2,000.

In Teso Sub-region, low farm gate prices have left farmers in pain since they are selling eight kilogrammes of maize for a bar of soap.“You reap what you sow,” said the President.

The Sacco was initiated by the Tourism minister, Mr Godfrey Kiwanda Suubi, who is also the area MP.

Mr Museveni said in the 1980s, the government set up a Price Stabilisation Fund to regulate fluctuating prices where it intervened to set a minimum price through which a given crop could be sold.

The Mityana Municipality mayor, Mr Easter Ndyanabo, inquired about when the Uganda National Roads Authority (UNRA) would complete the construction of the Mityana Station Road that stretches from Buswabulongo Village to Kigogwa and the Kampala –Mityana Road via Kiyinda Mityana.

He appealed to the President to prevail over UNRA to speed up the construction and add more three kilometres to the stretch to save residents from dust.

The President replied: “Pigs don’t need tarmac roads.”He explained further that pigs can still be transported to the market even without tarmacked roads.

The president asked the people of Mityana to seek God first, freedom and wealth.